MEP Sharon Bowles is an unusual candidate in that she has no background as an economist. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Sharon Bowles, the Liberal Democrat MEP, has joined the race to succeed Sir Mervyn King as governor of the Bank of England, saying she had applied for the £302,000-a-year role after encouragement from "people in London".

Speaking from Brussels, Bowles told the Guardian she had "reservations" about the benefits of quantitative easing – the electronic printing of money.

The increasingly powerful role of governor will oversee monetary policy, financial stability and banking regulation.

"It's a huge job that is going to have to be done in response to eurozone integration that is progressively going to threaten the single market in financial services … The governor is going to have to go out there and negotiate so we are not on the sidelines." A surprise candidate to succeed King, who will step down in June next year, Bowles said she had applied on Sunday evening – hours before the 8.30am deadline on Monday.

Bowles, who chairs the European parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, will compete for the eight-year post with Financial Services Authority boss Lord Turner, deputy Bank governor Paul Tucker, and Sir John Vickers, who led the government's independent commission on banking. Lord Burns, currently chairman of Santander in the UK, is also regarded as a possible candidate. An Indian prisoner is said to have applied after reading the advert in the Economist.

None of Bowles's main rivals is speaking publicly about their interest in the job, which is being advertised for the first time. However, Turner is due to address a City audience on Thursday in a speech at the Mansion House which will be closely monitored for any signals of how he might approach the governor's role.

Bowles said her experience of Europe would demonstrate a "change at the top" of the Bank at a time when a new wave of financial regulation is coming from Brussels as it attempts to tackle the eurozone crisis. While she is a politician, Bowles describes her current role as chairing the economic and monetary affairs committee as "95% apolitical".

"We are going to have to negotiate and get a good relationship going between the Bank of England and the European Central Bank," Bowles said. An MEP since 2005, Bowles, who will not stand for re-election in 2014 when the current European parliament ends, began her career as a patent lawyer – and unusually for a potential Bank of England governor does not have a background in economics. But she was driven to politics in response to Lady Thatcher's economic approach in the 1980s.

"I'm a physicist, a real economy person working with people doing patent applications. I could see the squeeze first-hand on them … I wanted to fight harder to keep manufacturing," she said.The Treasury refused to name the candidates and a spokesman said: "The structure of the appointment process remains as set out by the chancellor."

There is speculation King's successor will be named on 5 December, alongside the autumn statement.